U.S. History: 1877-2008

By Jack.Miner
  • 1933 BCE

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) established

  • Period: to

    Early American History

  • Declaration of Independence signed

  • Constitution written

  • Bill of Rights ratified

  • Period: to

    Civil War/ Reconstruction

  • Homestead Act

    provided 160 acres to anyone willing to settle on land in the west

  • 13th Amendment: abolished slavery

  • 14th Amendment: citizenship & due process

  • Transcontinental Railroad Completed

  • 15th Amendment: voting for all male citizens

  • Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

  • Period: to

    The Gilded Age

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    prohibited immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese laborers, first US national immigration act

  • Pendleton Civil Service Act

    awarded government jobs based on merit

  • Interstate Commerce Act

    ensure railroad set “reasonable and just” rate and the first time government stepped in to regulate business

  • Dawes Act

    gave individual ownership of land to native Americans instead of the tribe owning things collectively

  • Hull House founded, first of many settlement houses

  • Sherman Antitrust Act

    outlawed business monopolies

  • Sherman Anti-Trust Act

    outlawed trusts to promote economic fairness
  • Period: to

    The Progressive Era

  • 1896-1899 Klondike Gold Rush (Alaska)

  • Plessy v. Ferguson: legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”

  • Plessy v. Ferguson: legalized segregation, established “separate but equal”

  • Hawaii is annexed as a territory of the United States

  • Period: to

    Imperialism

  • Open Door Policy

    initiated free trade with China

  • (1904-1914) Panama Canal Built

  • Roosevelt Corollary

    an addition to the Monroe Doctrine

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is published

  • Meat Inspection Act

    law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat

  • Pure Food and Drug Act

    regulation of the preparation of foods and the sale of medicines

  • NAACP Founded

  • Dollar Diplomacy

    Taft’s policy of paying for peace in Latin America

  • 16th Amendment

    established the federal income tax

  • 17th Amendment

    direct election of U.S. Senators

  • Federal Reserve Act

    established the Federal Reserve, which helped stabilize the banking industry

  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, starting World War I

  • Period: to

    World War I

  • Sinking of the Lusitania

  • National Parks System created

  • Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by the British, warned the U.S. of a proposed ally between Mexico and Germany

  • The United States enters WWI on the Allied side

  • Bolshevik Revolution in Russia begins, causing Russian troops to exit the war

  • Battle of Argonne Forest, considered the turning point of the war

  • Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers

  • President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points

    statement of principles for peace after World War I, included no colonialism, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles

    peace treaty that ended World War I, required Germany to accept full blame and pay war reparations as well as demilitarize

  • 18th Amendment

    prohibition is enacted and alcohol is illegal
  • Period: to

    Roaring Twenties

  • 19th Amendment

    women are given the right to vote

  • Teapot Dome Scandal uncovered by the Wall Street Journal

  • American Indian Citizenship Act

    granted citizenship to any Native Americans born within the United States

  • Scopes Monkey Trial

  • Charles Lindbergh makes history by making a nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris

  • Stock Market Crash

  • Period: to

    Great Depression

  • Period: to

    Dust Bowl

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt elected

  • Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established

  • 20th Amendment

    adjusted the dates of the presidential terms

  • 21st Amendment

    repeals the 18th Amendment and prohibition ends

  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) established

  • Works Progress Administration (WPA) established

  • Social Security Act

    established the Social Security Administration, which provides unemployment insurance, aid to the disabled, old age pensions, and insurance for families

  • Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting WWII

  • Period: to

    World War II

  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

  • Battle of Midway

  • Bataan Death March

  • Executive Order 9066

    incarceration of Japanese Americans for the duration of WWII

  • “D-Day” - Invasion of Normandy

  • G.I. Bill

    gives military veterans financial and educational benefits

  • The atomic bomb, “Little Boy” is dropped in Hiroshima, Japan (August 6)

  • The atomic bomb, “Fat Man” is dropped in Nagasaki, Japan, ending World War II (August 9)

  • United Nations formed

  • Period: to

    Early Cold War

  • Truman Doctrine

    U.S. policy that gave military and economic aid to countries threatened by communism

  • Berlin Airlift

  • Marshall Plan

    program to help European countries rebuild after World War II

  • NATO established

  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Era

  • Period: to

    Korean War

  • Rosenbergs trial

  • 22nd Amendment

    prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again

  • First H-Bomb detonated by the United States

  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Jonas Salk invents the Polio Vaccine

  • Interstate Highway Act

    authorized the building of a national highway system

  • USSR launches Sputnik

  • Period: to

    End of the Cold War

  • Period: to

    1990s-21st Century